Genesee County to lose unemployment appeals office as workforce levels continue to decline

FLINT, MI -- Albert Davis doesn’t like the idea of doing business with the state of Michigan over the phone.

“You can call them, but if they don’t get back with you, you’ll be mad,” said Davis, who is employed, but is looking for a second job.

“I need three or four,” he joked.

Starting Dec. 10, anyone with a case before a judge at the Flint unemployment appeals office will either have to drive out of the county or wait for a phone call from a judge.

The Flint office, located at 1388 Bristol Road, is being closed and the six employees there are going to be absorbed at other locations, said Chris Seppanen, director of the employment services division for the Michigan Administrative Hearing System.

It was announced earlier in the week the state would close unemployment appeals offices in Flint and Grand Rapids to reduce costs and lower the number of in-person appeal hearings, moving to a phone-based appeals system.

The Michigan Administrative Hearing System provides administrative law judges to preside over employer and claimant unemployment appeals. The state is requiring the department’s $13.6 million budget to be cut by $3.6 million.

The unemployment rate in Genesee County for August 2012 was 9.5 percent, a drop from 10.8 percent the year before, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

Unemployment rates and the size of county's labor force have been on the decline since 2009.

The the unemployment rate of Genesee County residents reached 16 percent in July of that year, with 31,635 people out of work. The workforce in Genesee County that year had a population of 198,313.

As of August 2012, the labor force of the county had dropped to 186,599, with 17,674 unemployed.

The Flint office averages about 3,000 hearings a year involving workers compensation and unemployment claims.

Cases involving compensation matters will be split up between offices located in Pontiac and Lansing. Unemployment cases will be divided between Southfield and Lansing offices, but the hearings will be by telephone.

The state already conducts between 30 to 40 percent of those hearings by phone, Seppanen said.

“You receive a notice of a hearing and the judge will call you,” he said. “The judge contacts all the parties at the scheduled time. We found that to be very efficient way to conduct the hearing.”

State Reps Jim Ananich, D-Flint, and Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, have spoken out against the cuts, sending a letter to the director of the state department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

They argue thousands of people will be denied benefits because of the offices being closed.